ABF’s Struggling Sugar Business Impacts Growth in H1

24 Feb 2015 --- Associated British Foods (ABF), the world’s eighth largest food manufacturer by revenue, announced it expects ‘marginal decline in earnings per share’ for H1 2015, in a trading statement on Monday.

The company blames the difficulties on low sugar prices and even strong sales at Primark, its discount clothes store, will not save figures in this half of 2015 financial year, it said.

A sharp drop in sugar prices in the EU, coupled with a weak pound, has led to ‘substantially lower profitability’ at the beginning of this year. Despite a major restructuring of the sugar business, which includes the closure of two plants in China, profits will be close to break-even for H1, said the statement.